Dear brother,
It is my great pleasure writing this to you. Meanwhile, my purpose of writing this short note to you is not only because of my concern for you but because of my great concern for good governance and democracy in Nigeria which a vibrant opposition is a sine-qua-non. For the fact that one of the main opposition parties in the country featured you as a presidential candidate is even of more concern.
I write to you in respect of your recent appointment as the chairman of the Task force and you acceptance of same. In retrospect, accepting such Greek gift is tantamount to a political suicide. You have just succeeded in digging your own political grave.
I always appreciate students of history, not only because I am one, but because they have the sense of looking back so as to judge the future. In retrospect, such acceptance by Bola Ige in the anal of Nigeria history should be an eloquent testimony that this kind of offer is dangerous; though Chief Ige is not here to narrate it better.
If that was far, can you compare the much-talked about track records of Ngozi Okonjo Iweala before she joined the crew to after? What has she done to our economy since she became the first “Glorified Assistant President” coordinating supposedly fellow colleagues? Reuben Abati used to be a great person before he accepted such offer that you (Ribadu) accepted with pride today. What can Nigerians and posterity say about Abati today? Oh! No Nigerian politician wants to hear such word- posterity. They don’t even believe in the word. But even if they don’t want to hear posterity, they should love nemesis because it will soon nab them.
I will charge you not to play politics with Nigerians in your response. We are all familiar with such response of ‘love for duty for country’. Don’t hide under the façade of community service. For what you care, with the advent of Mr. Twitter that President Goodluck Jonthan accused of ‘misinforming’ Nigerians, we have woken up beyond such smokescreen.
Don’t get me wrong, brother, I have no reason to doubt your intellectual capability and military zeal to effect change, but the truth is you cannot beat them; you can only opt out or join them. Remember, you will be reporting directly to the Honorable Minister of Petroleum Recourses, Allison Maduekwe and all the members of Cabal. They will tell you what to do and what not to do per time. NEITI was created in 2004 or so to perform almost the same functions of your task force.
Come to think of it, even if you discover anything, because they know you will, who would you report this to? During your hay days in EFCC, you were reporting to Mr. President. What are the changes you think you can bring under this choky environment?
To me, this is a litmus test for your democratic ability and sense of purpose. Moreover, If your quote about your father wasq true, I hope your father would be expecting you to go back to your Local Government Area and contest for chairmanship or councillorship. I guess that was what your father meant by love for community service. Like the Confucian adage goes: “person who chases two rabbits catches neither.” If Madam Allison appointed you, it follows that she also reserves the prerogative to sack you at will.
I cannot imagine John McCain or Romney taking such appointment from President Obama. Let tell ourselves some truth here. We don’t want Government of National Unity, it’s a fraud; it has never work anywhere. If we must stick to democracy, out opposition parties must be vibrant.
Your acceptance of this juicy offer makes you an opportunist and rent seeker, if not political scavenger. You have not proved yourself worthy of leading our dear nation by this offer. There are thousands of areas that you can serve you country without taking this offer.
Perhaps my zeal for you was born out of my wrong perception of you and your pedigree. Whatever, but my candid advice is that you should not take the offer, if you are still member of opposition that we are expecting to snatch power away from PDP. Of course a lost dog will not hear the warning whistle of the hunter.
God Bless Nigeria!
Yours Sincerely,
Olujide ‘Gbenga
08/02/2012
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